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Game Balance/Skill Conundrum: Mind Games vs. Mechanics
Hello reader! I hope to take you on a thought journey that is hopefully as fun to read and it is to write. 😁
Intro
DBD is one of the most interesting and unique games I know. I've played all kinds of video games since I was 5 across multiple platforms, and the mind games and mechanics of DBD are the most unique of any games I've ever played. There is no game experience that I can really equate to it...
The Basic M1 Gameplay loop
A thought that has been bubbling in my mind for a long time is the disparity of killers such as Trapper, Myers and Pig compared to the likes of Nurse, Huntress and Blight... and after a while of thinking about these killers, the main differences generally speaking between higher level killers vs. lower ones seems to be the difference of the reliance on mind games vs. mechanical skill...
I propose that Survivor and low tier Killers rely more on mind game skill expression, rather than mechnical skill expression...
What I mean by this is, your typical basic m1 killer gameplay loop is to induce the survivor to make a mistake in order for the killer to close distance and land a hit. The key skills here for both sides are positioning and predicition, and something that is hard earned through experience... the knowledge of tiles structures, tile and window spawns and how to chain tiles together, accounting for the potential perks in play, this is all paramount, but ultimately all of it boils down fundamentally to positioning and prediction.
I would argue the actual inputs required to do this are not very difficult/complicated, i.e. are not high in mechanical skill expression... and I would argue that survivor by and large is not full of opportunities for much mechanical skill expression... while hugging tight to corners and inputting your direcrions accurately for fast faults are factors, your decision making is the primary tool with which you survive in DBD.
How mechanical skill expression differs in practise
How this manifests is the likes Trapper have little in the way of mechanical skill expression to level the playing field, and become notoriously hard to elevate with buffs without making them obnoxious... against Survivors who are wise to the mind games, optimally positioning at tiles, and rarely making mistakes, there is little Trapper can do about it... there is no mechanical skill he can employ to swing the mind game back in his favour... all he has are traps he places to limit options, which still follow the same principles of positioning, mind games and alike to induce a survivor mistake.
You compare this to someone like Blight, Hillbilly, Huntress or Nurse, these characters each have a lot of mechanical skill. Their mechanical skill creates new mind games for the killer to use, and can even brute force a scenario where it is entirely on the killer to miss instead of anything the survivor can realistically do about it. I'd argue this disparity is most heavily pronounced on the Nurse...
Against Nurse, she still needs mind game skill, but it isn't as heavily required as it is on m1 killers. Survivors still are primarily using the tools of positioning and prediction to defend themselves, however Nurse can use 2 blinks; the first to get close, the second toblink on top and hit the survivor. The survivor has basically no mechanical skill they can employ to avoid this hit... maybe a spin tech, but that's about it... all a survivor can realistically do is position themselves awkwardly and unpredictably to make it so the Nurse needs an absurdly high level of precision to land the hit. This ultimately means it is entirely down to the mechanical precision of the Nurse as to whether she gets a hit or not... her mechnical skill expression can completely subvert the survivors prediction and mind game skill expression, and is something the top tier Nurses can do to run roughshot over even strong survivors.
This is the same for Blight's rushes, Hillbilly's chainsaw dashes, and the accuracy of Huntress hatchets... the ability to use these powers precisely takes a lot of mechanical skill that, swings the mind games heavily back in the killers favour with sufficient mechnical skill.
An interesting set of side cases: Slowdown Killers
This difference of mechanical vs. mind game skill expression creates an interesting problem for balance. Killers like Pinhead, Pig, Freddy, Sadako, etc all universally have high killrates as killers, even though (for the most part) their chases are not strong... there is little in terms of mechnical skill expression they can employ to level the playing field... not to say they don't take skill, but they have to rely on mind games far more to win, and thus end up hitting a pretty concrete upper skill bound...
High level survivors who understand their powers and position/predict well against them can run rings around them with little they can do about it... there is absolutely an upper end to their mechnical skill expression...
However on the other end of the spectrum, the players that don't have those skills as well tuned yet, can easily get overwhelmed and get run over horribly by these killers, because ultimately these killers powers are all about increasing the likelyhood the survivors make a game losing mistake...
The hated characters that lack both... Anti-Loop Killers
Similarly characters that block off loops and get all the benefits of mechnical skill expression, without anywhere near the requirements for precision and mechanical skill expression to achieve it (such as Artist, SM, Knight, etc) get a lot of criticism, even if they aren't strong.
Against these killers there are no mind games to employ, and no mechnical skill expression to force out of them... instead they close areas off while keeping hot in chase, and basically force a hit out of the survivor without really much the survivor can realistically do about it...
Again, positioning and prediction are the survivors tools, and a power that robs them of those tools is not fun for a survivor, especially if it doesn't takes much effort for the killer to do... a great Hillbilly chainsaw is fun to face, because you can make it very hard for Billy to land his hit, so when he does, even if there was nothing you could do to avoid it, it doesn't feel cheap.
Conclusion: So is it OK for lower mechnical skill killers to be low tier?
As a Pig main 🐽, I don't particularly like this thought but...
This leads one to think... is it OK that some killers are stuck in the lower tiers and have this disparity? Newer players go up against them, and they need these kind of killers to learn the basic mechanics of the game. When they get good enough, they start encountering more of the mechanically skillful killers (the dream that is MMR).
The theoretical problem is that should say Trapper be buffed to rival the power of Nurse (say something silly, like invisible traps)... because he lacks mechnical expression in his kit, wouldn't he be getting into the realms of Skull Merchant or Knight style killers? Able to get free damage without much effort by robbing survivors of their prediction and positioning tools juat by using his power as and when?
It seems to me the issue with nerfing upper tier killers and buffing lower tier killers, is to make an upper tier killer weaker you need to limit the potential of their mechnical skill expression... since survivors only have positioning and mind games to combat you, and don't have any equivalent to mechnical skill expression to fight against you with (survivors would need somethimg like being able to burn Nurse out of her blink if they are accurate with a flashlight for example)....
Similarly buffing killers without mechanical skill expression means making then able to deny the survivors mind game tools without having to use any effort to do it...
Does this mean it's actually better that lower tier killers have an upper bound they can't break through?
I'll let you decide, and would be very happy yo read your thoughts... Have a good one 😁🤘
Comments
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I don't agree with your explanation of the Nurse encounter. (But it's about 2:30 AM, I'm not entirely awake, I hope I got it right.)
360 are very efficient against a Nurse, especially if they are timed right. (Good mechanical skills required.)
Placing oneself right behind the blink landing and turning with the Nurse works pretty well too. (Requires good mechanical skills though). Remember that one of the changes of the Nurse was that survivors see the Nurse landing before the killer does.
The way I see it, a Nurse playing survivor has high survival chance against any Nurse less skilled/experienced than he is.
That's how I explain I survive most of the Nurses I verse and that was in a nutshell how survivors I couldn't catch explained it to me.
(I have a far lower survival rate against any other killer.)
For example, since you know how the Nurse thinks and how she is trying to influence your moves, you can fake falling for it and doing something she would never expect.
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Oh I absolutely agree, you have things you can do against Nurse, and I have a lot of fun against most Nurses....
However you are kinda agreeing with my point; your spin tech is one of the only mechanical skill expressions you have as survivor, and ultimately it's purpose is to make it as hard as possible for the Nurse to aim the hit... you're still at the mercy of her aim skill at the end of the day.
Most Nurses aren't cracked out of their mind, and survivors can use prediction and mind games to make it extremely hard for her to land a hit... but we've all faced that one Nurse at some point who despite that still just lands on top of you and spins like a tazmanian devil, that you just can't seem to avoid a hit from. 😁
All of this is not to say that Nurse is busted, it's to make the point that there is this disparity between Killers caused by their differences of mechanical skill expression, a difference that can't really be bridged without making low mechanics killers insanely unfair...
Nurse is the upper bound, where sufficiently high skill can neutralise pretty much every tool the survivor has and can put survivors in very hard to win situations... Trapper is the lower bound, where he basically has no mechnical skill expression to do the same, so is at the mercy of survivors making mistakes for him to win.
Hope that makes sense! 😁
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This is an interesting discussion, and it helped clarify something for me. I think my preference would be for the game to be 100% about winning mind games — or as close to 100% as possible — probably because I would do a lot better if it was. The stuff that really frustrates me is what you're calling "mechanical skill expression" — or, more specifically, when I win the mind game but I lose the chase because of a difference in mechanical skill. To me, that feels like I got cheated — because the mind game is the only part I value/care about/am good at.
So, I think what I'm realizing now is that I instinctively perceive outcomes that depend on mechanical skill rather than strategy as flaws in the game — but maybe I just don't like the mechanical part of it and I'm never going to, because that's not the type of gamer I am.
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Thanks man!
I know exactly what you mean, and I feel we're similar in that all of my favourite killers happen to be the likes of Trapper, Myers, Pig, etc, the killers who are far more reliant on surprise, mind games and outthinking survivors. I love Myers for example because his power, while simple, is very synergistic with perks, and you can really catch out survivors with a clever Myers build.
....And you're dead right, I know the gameplan of Pig very well, to the point I can be pretty deadly on Pig myself… and while I'm not the best player, I know a few Piggies who are exceptional (dropping no names but I'm sure they know who they are 😏). My biggest point of pride to date was watching a high level Pig game of a player we know here in the forums, and being immediately able to recognise that high level Pigs thought process that allowed them to capitalise on the arrogance and blasé attitude of some very high skilled survivors to get a 4k.
Her upper level of potential is capped by how much survivors recognise and respect her power... but unless you're very familiar, it's easy for even high level survivors to succumb to the more nuanced areas of her game. That knowledge of Pig means I also know her weaknesses very well, and I tend to make life very hard for my fellow Pigs... which often leads me to be quite sad gacing her… but makes me insanely happy when I see a Pig that genuinely out smarts me and the rest of the team. 😁
In some ways I don't want to get too good at DBD, and is why I never play meta builds on survivors.... I do really enjoy playing vs. the mechnical skill expressions killers... but the pure mental game of the lower tier killers are a different but just as fun challenge 😁
Also thanks friend!
I feel like the above point ties in with yours as well... I do love the mind games of DBD... and I do like how the mechnical skill killers bring new mind games to the table...
However I will admit, when you're playing against someone is cracked outta their mind, there is a point where you can't help but think "oh OK... guess I just die then" xD
To be fair... I don't even mind that... but it does feel a little frustrating when you get tunneled by said killer... you can win exchanges vs. A Blight or Nurse for example... but you can't ever lose them for long... if they decide to tunnel... you're probably gonna die and there isn't really much you can do about it... 😒
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very interesting read and always good to get an insight into these things even as someone who plays exclusively as survivor, it gives me an appreciation of conundrums killers face that I rarely have a chance to think about in the thick of a run of games. It is also interesting to see how the game takes balancing ideas forward - there is no right or wrong with these things, only ideas that who knows will work out or not without testing.
Thanks for your effort and well articulated post!
❌☠️🃏
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